Ottawa, February 3, 1999 -- The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning a broadcast of Provincewide, a public affairs program aired on CKCO-TV (Kitchener), which dealt with the controversial issue of proposed education reform in Ontario and the anticipated Ontario teachers’ strike. A viewer complained that the discussion presented in the broadcast was one-sided and biased, so much so in his view that it “amounted to nothing more than propaganda.” In its response to the complainant, the broadcaster accepted that the program in question may have been somewhat problematic but it pointed to a subsequent broadcast of Provincewide which again dealt with the issue of education reform in Ontario and presented opposing views.
The Ontario Regional Council considered the complaint under provisions of the Code of Ethics of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB). It found no violation. Referring to an earlier CBSC decision, the Council reiterated that
it has been the view of the CBSC that a program dealing with a controversial issue need not have built-in balance. Broadcasters are entitled to balance biased programming by presenting the other side of the issue on other programs dealing with the same issue.
The Council found that “on the strength of the [subsequent] broadcast of Provincewide, ... CKCO-TV has fully met its obligation under Clause 7 of the CAB Code of Ethics to “treat fairly, all subjects of a controversial nature.”
The complainant had also raised concerns regarding the appropriateness of the broadcaster’s choice of one of the two interviewees for the broadcast in question. On this point, the Council noted “that the decision concerning whom to interview, like other decisions related to which story to tell, falls squarely within the broadcaster’s purview provided that, in the case of a controversial issue, balance is ultimately achieved.”
Canada’s private broadcasters have created industry standards in the form of Codes on ethics, gender portrayal and television violence by which they expect their members will abide. They also created the CBSC, which is the self-regulatory body with the responsibility of administering those Codes, as well as the Code dealing with journalistic practices created by the Radio Television News Directors Association Canada (RTNDA). More than 430 radio and television stations and specialty services from across Canada are members of the Council.
– 30 –
All CBSC decisions, Codes, links to members’ and other web sites, and related information are available on the World Wide Web at www.cbsc.ca. For more information, please contact the National Chair of the CBSC, Ron Cohen, at (###) ###-####.